Wallace co-starred with Mary Martin in the Broadway musical Jennie and was nominated for a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for playing the male lead in New Girl in Town opposite Gwen Verdon.

In 1952 Wallace auditioned for a character part in Radar Men from the Moon and landed the starring role of Commando Cody.

To play Cody, Wallace's outfit consisted of a leather jacket, a silver bullet-shaped helmet, and an atomic-powered rocket pack controlled by three dials: up/down, fast/slow and on/off.

Wallace appeared to fly in the serial by lying face-down on a long two-by-four that stuck out horizontally from a platform in front of a rear-projection screen.

Wallace's Broadway debut was in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Pipe Dream, starring the operatic soprano Helen Traubel.

Wallace died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from injuries he sustained during a fall while on vacation in Pisa, Italy.